The Who… Not The How

Super cool thing I learned from Dan Sullivan at Genius K (The 100K Group) last night…

On this episode Russell talks about some things he learned at his 100k group. He explains the difference between the who and the how, and why he might start keeping a journal. Here are some of the interesting things you will hear in today’s episode:

What Dan Sullivan taught him about finding the who instead of figuring out the how.

Why he is going to apply that to his own projects that he has been procrastinating on.

And how Ethan Willis convinced him to start keeping a journal of how God touches his life.

So listen here to find out what kind of things Russell is learning in the 100k group.

Full Episode Transcript

What’s up everybody? This is Russell Brunson, welcome to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Today I am coming to you from my hotel bed in Arizona and I want to share with you something amazing I learned yesterday.

Alright everybody, I’m actually in Scottsdale, Arizona at Dean Graziosi’s office for a group that I’m part of called the 100k group, meaning everybody in the group spent $100,000 to be in this room which is kind of ridiculous. But it gets you in to know some really amazing people and the filter of are you amazing enough to be in this room is can you write a check for $100,000? So that’s the one cool thing, you know that everyone in here is doing big things because they can pass that filter of the ability to do that, which is kind of cool.

I just got here this morning and I gotta pack and shower and everything because I’m heading home tonight. But I had one really cool thing that I learned yesterday that I just wanted to share with you guys before I start that process. A lot of you guys know who Dan Sullivan is, if not Dan Sullivan is the owner of Strategic Coach, I think it’s strategiccoach.com. I’ve never actually gone through coach, the strategic coach, but I bought all of Dan’s book and gone through his trainings and there’s a lot of amazing stuff.

Anyway, so he yesterday at the event, I did a training for about an hour on hook, story, offer, which I’ve shared with you guys some stuff about that. I also talked about how to reduce churn, which got me re-pumped about trying to reduce churn, so it was kind of fun. Then after I spoke, Dan Sullivan got up to speak and he’s like, “I just need ten minutes. In ten minutes I’ll blow everyone’s minds and I’ll change every entrepreneur in this group.”

So I was like, alright this is going to be fun to see what Dan Sullivan has to share. So he gets up there on stage and he says, “Us entrepreneurs, we…” and he only works with entrepreneurs, similar to me, “Us entrepreneurs have a lot of character traits.”I’ll say traits not flaws, because they’re also our super powers. But he says, “What happens is an entrepreneur will have a vision for something that’s bigger and better.” So he drew a big picture of a star.

“This is a vision of this bigger, better thing that you want.” Which is why we do what we do. Like, I could make this thing better. There’s always a thing that we’re moving towards, a bigger, better thing. He says, “Then on the other side is you. You’re moving towards this bigger, better thing and you to go and you want to get it, achieve it, create it, whatever.” So what happens though, the first thing entrepreneurs do is we, the first thing we do is say, ‘How can I do that? How do I, how can I get that big result? What’s the process I need to go through? What’s the how?”

So what happens as soon as we start thinking through the how, we start thinking through everything and then what happens for most of us, including I’m guessing, all of us. We don’t know the how. No one ever, there’s not a book that teaches us how to accomplish that crazy thing. So we start trying to figure out the how, and how can we figure out the how when we don’t know the how already? Then we get stuck and we slip into this mode called procrastination, trying to figure it out, trying to figure it out, and we’re just moving towards this bigger, brighter star, but then we can’t figure out the how and we detour away from it into procrastination, because we don’t know the how.

So that’s where most entrepreneurs stop. We get lost in this, “How do I do it? How do I do it?” and it turns into procrastination and we’re done. So think about it you guys, how many products have you started on, that you’re excited and see the vision, and you love it, but then you procrastinate for some reason.

His argument, the reason why we’re procrastinating is because we don’t know the how and we’re trying to figure out the how, and we’re like, “Uh..” and we get stuck. If we knew how to do it, then we would just go do it. But we don’t know how, that’s what causes the procrastination, because we’re trying to figure it out, there’s tension, there’s stuff keeping us from moving forward.

So that was the first thing. He said, “The question we need to start asking ourselves instead of how,” So here’s us moving towards this bigger, better vision of this thing we want to create, instead of saying “how do I do that?” Which if we don’t know how and can’t figure it out, it causes procrastination. Instead we need to say who. Who can do that thing? Who already knows the how?

It was interesting, because I had spoken, a couple of people had spoken and Dan got up and he’s like, “I’m 74 years old right now, Russell talked about all this amazing stuff and I was listening because I was excited, but I didn’t try to understand any of it, because I don’t want to know the how, Russell does. But now I know the who. So if I ever want to do that thing that Russell talked about, I know the who and I’m going to go call him and pay him because he is the who, who already knows the how, so it’s not going to cause this procrastination.”

He says, “Us entrepreneurs have to stop trying to figure out the how, how, how, which is what our brains are wired to do, and start thinking who, who, who. So if you have this big, better vision, you never should be thinking, ‘how do I do that?’ you should be thinking, ‘who already knows how to do this?’ Figure out who already knows how to do it, and then they’ll just go do the thing. Procrastination disappears instantly. And if they already know how to do the thing, they’re just going to do it way faster, way easier.”

So he starts talking about this, like when you have a vision for a company, or an idea, or whatever. The first thing you need to be thinking about is who. Who is it? Not, how am I going to do this? Because the how will cause procrastination, which makes the thing never happen. The who helps you open your mind. Who’s that person that knows how to do this? You find that person and they know the how and then it just magically happens.

It’s not that person is going to teach the how, it’s they already know the how. So hire them, pay them, let them do the how and that will move you towards the whole thing. So the whole concept was re-wiring all of our brains to shift to the internal question of not how but who. I thought that was pretty dang cool.

So I’m sitting there in the meeting and I had this idea for a change in our coaching program, the big shiny thing for the Two Comma Club X, I’m like how, because I had this really weird thing in my head all the time, where it’s like how can I serve my audience better, how can I serve these guys better, how can I serve them better? So I’m always thinking through that.

So with the Two Comma Club X people that joined at Funnel Hacking Live, I’m like, how do I serve them better? How do I serve them better? We keep adding cool things and sometimes adding things hurts more than it helps. I’m like, how, how, how? Then I heard this talk and it was like, who? So I consciously was like, okay, this time I’m not going to figure out the how, because it was stressing me out just thinking about all the pieces to figure out the how. I was like, okay who’s the person who knows how to do this?

And instantly in my head I was like, I know exactly who it is. So I messaged that person while I’m sitting there, and 5 minutes later I get a message back from that person, who then introduced me to the other person, who’s the who that this person went to for the who. And this morning I just voxed that who and that who is now running on this thing that I was trying to figure out the how on, that would have taken me another month, two months to implement. Now, my guess is by the time I land in Boise tonight, it’s Friday night, but Monday by the time I get in the office, it’s going to be pretty much done because I got the who, who knows how to do it and it’s shifted everything. And it was interesting.

So I’m trying to start thinking through all my projects where I’m procrastinating. I’m looking at my to-do list, I’m looking at my Trello boards, all the stuff that’s slowly irking forward. I’m looking at them all and I’m like, oh my gosh. All these ones it’s because I’m trying to figure out how am I going to do that? How am I going to do that? I’m getting so stressed out because I don’t know the how, and I’m angry because I’m like, I should know this. My brain, come on stupid brain, work better.

But it’s like, no, my jobs not to figure out the how on everything. It’s to figure out the who, who already knows the how. Figure out the who and then let them do it, and that’s the key.

So it’s this mindset shift we need to start having, it’s not the how but the who. I think, we have a new project we’re going to be rolling out here, well depending on the programmers. Stupid programmers take forever. Not my programmers, we’re outsourcing this project because yeah. They said it would be between three and six months. I’m like, we built Clickfunnels in less time than that. It’s frustrating.

But anyway, the whole goal of that is to help all of us funnel builders to think about the who not the how. I think one of the biggest problems we have inside of our community is, and I think I’m partially to blame for this. I get everyone so excited about funnels and copy and graphics and all this stuff. So people are like, “Oh, I’m going to figure out how to do this.” And they’re figuring out how to design funnels, how to write copy, how to do videos, how to…they’re figuring out all these how’s, and there’s a lot of how’s that go into launching a successful funnel.

What I want to shift it to, from how’s to who’s. So what we’re building is a really cool directory to give you a whole bunch of who’s. So you’re like, “Oh, I need a designer.” Well, here’s all the who’s that are amazing designers. “Oh, I need a copywriter.” “Oh I need someone to help me with strategy.” “Oh I need someone to help me with this.” It’s like, okay here’s all the things that will give you what you’re looking for.

Anyway, I’m excited. IT’s like the most cool, fun, amazing thing ever and I’m excited. So there’s the lesson for today. Figure out the who not the how. Everything you’re procrastinating on, you’re stuck on in your business, realize it’s a how problem, and you shift it to a who problem. When you shift it form a how problem to a who problem, it will make your life a bajillion times simpler and easier.

A couple other things he said, “If you want to attract the right who’s, that know how to do the how’s, you have to sell them on the what and the why.” Now we’re getting deep right. So he said, the people who already know the how’s, if they’re really good at it, they don’t necessarily just want to, if you want to attract the right who’s you need to share with them the why they are doing it, and what they’re doing. So if they understand the why, then those who’s will do the how’s for you. I hope I got that right.

Anyway, it’s why you gotta share the vision. You’re the entrepreneur, you’ve got this bigger, better vision that you’re excited by. If you want to attract amazing talent, it’s not so much that you can pay them, that helps some times. But the better job you get at really helping them to understand why you’re going after this bigger vision, and what’s the reasoning behind it and things like that, then it inspires them and the right who’s will move forward.

What I’ve found in my business is, the most amazing people aren’t typically money motivated, they’re why motivated. They’re motivated by, oh my gosh, that would be amazing. Let’s move that direction, let’s do this thing.

The last thing that I want to share, because this is the last piece that he kind of threw out. I think Dan said he’s writing a book on this, I don’t know, something. but he said, the title of his presentation of the book or whatever was, “How many who’s to freedom?” At first I was like, “Wait, what?” and he said, “How many who’s to freedom. Not what are all the things I need to learn how to do to get freedom? It’s like how many who’s do I need to have to get freedom?

For you launching a funnel and you want to get to Two Comma Club, it’s not how do I do all this stuff. It’s how many who’s do I need to do it? I need someone who understands funnel strategy. Who’s that? I need somebody who understands really good video stuff. Who’s that? I need somebody who understands traffic. Who’s that? And it’s figuring out the who’s. How many who’s to freedom? Two who’s, three who’s, five who’s? Who are the who’s? Instead of stressing about trying to learn it all, figure out who already knows how to do it, who’s already learned it, and get them sold on the what and the why and then they’ll help you out. That’s the magic.

So how many who’s to your freedom? Oh, that’s magic. So that’s the question in my head right now. How many who’s to my freedom? So I’m going to start going through my most important projects and lining them out and then figuring out the who’s. Not the how to’s, which sucks because I love how to stuff. Any book that says “How to blank” I buy just because I love learning how to. So I’ll still do that for fun, but not for actual business. I’m going to figure out the who’s from now on.

So there you go you guys. Thank you Dan Sullivan for sharing that, I think it’s amazing and hopefully it will help a lot of you guys. Oh, and then one other thing I want to share. I almost want to do a separate podcast on this, but I’m not going to because it’s kind of a shorter thing.

One of my other friends that spoke, his name is Ethan Willis, he runs the backend sales and coaching department for Growth.com, for Brandon and Dean. He did a really good training on coaching and selling coaching and stuff like that, and at the end of it somebody asked him what’s the most important thing that he’s learned or what books has he read, everything? And he said two things that were just so good.

The first thing he said, when he wakes up every morning, his goal is to create the day spiritually before he creates it physically. So in the morning he wakes up and mentally thinks through, “What am I going to do today? What are the processes?” and all this stuff, and he spiritually in his mind creates what in the day is going to happen. Setting out his intentions, setting out all that kind of stuff. He says when you create spiritually first, then you can go out and create it physically after. When we wake up and start trying to create the day, the problem is we don’t have a plan, things like that.

So he said he creates the day spiritually before he goes and actually executes on it physically, which is fascinating. From a spiritual standpoint, it’s really interesting as well. God created everything spiritually before he created physically, so it’s like we should do the same thing with our day. Create things spiritually before we create physically.

And the second thing, and I share this one because I am not a journal, I’ve never liked journaling. And I’m a Mormon, and the Mormon church, they teach to journal. Keep a journal all the time. I am the worst journal ever. On your mission they want you to write in your journal every single day, I think I wrote in my journal three times. I struggle at journaling, and I think it’s because I don’t understand the ROI on it. What’s the return on investment? Because I’m a big high ROI type of person.

Anyway, what he said is that every night when he goes to bed, he pulls out his journal and he writes. He says, “I write in my journal how God touched my life that day.” So thinking back on that day, what are the things? Where did God help me throughout the day? Oh man, in this situation here he helped me. In this situation….

He tries to identify the things that day that God affected his life, and he writes those down in a journal. And that’s something I could grasp, because as soon as you’re more aware of, like here’s all the things that happened today that helped me, or God helped me, then you start opening your eyes more. You see it more and I think you’re more grateful for it. When you’re more grateful for it, more blessings come, and it’s just this amazing thing. So there’s the ROI. For people like me who are obsessed with the ROI.

But I think that’s something I could actually get behind and stick with, at the end of the day, pulling out a journal and thinking through the day. Where are all the things where God touched my life today? And then writing those down. And I think as you start doing that more and more will appear.

So I’m going to try to keep a journal. Not a real journal, because I don’t, my podcast and my blogs and my books are my real journal. But I want to keep a journal of just little things where God touched my life each day, because I think as I become more aware of it, more of it will happen. And that pumps me up.

Alright guys, this is longer podcast. I just want to share some of those amazing things with you. With that said, I’m going to go shower, shave, pack up my bags and I’m heading into the last day of the 100k group, and then get home to my wife and kids. I cannot wait, they are the coolest. I hate being away from them, it’s horrible. Alright guys, appreciate you all and we’ll talk to you soon. Bye.

Who is Russell Brunson?

Over the past 10 years, Russell has built a following of over a million entrepreneurs, sold hundreds of thousands of copies of his books, popularized the concept of sales funnels, and co-founded a software company called ClickFunnels that helps tens of thousands of entrepreneurs quickly get their message out to the marketplace.